>>20334539
No, he was just another character in an era of characters. It wasn't until he turned the gay stuff to 11 that anyone even raised an eyebrow, and that didn't last that long before he had to tone it down.
The crowd reaction was just something they've always done, zoom in on some random kid who has a dumb look on their face as if everyone else in the arena is just as dumbfounded (ie, you were worked by the camera work).

>>20334957
I remember he had that movie buff gimmick at first.

>>20334539
Face wrestlers openly called him a faggot in their face promos. It was a better time.

>>20334539
Also in hindsight it was clearly a humiliation ritual from Vince aimed at pissing off Dusty Rhodes.

>>20334539
I remember seeing his first promo on Superstars and being really unnerved. This is before it was revealed he was a homosexual character outright. Something was just unsettling about it and I don't think at the time I knew what a flamboyant gay man was supposed to be or was.

>>20335151
People forget that that was what the whole character was even based on.

>>20334539
https://youtu.be/DOLjDRClEUk?si=d4GWes-4Wt5ew7O0

I remember him burning the costume more and the fan heckling him.

File: TAFKAG.jpg (166 KB, 1440x1080)

166 KB JPG

>>20334539
Goldust is legit one of my favorite gimmicks of all time. No one could have pulled it off quite like Dustin Rhodes. Don't get me wrong, I think Dustin nowadays is a filler act. Him winning the trios titles in ROH alongside the latest generation of Von Erichs accomplished virtually nothing.

Anyways, Goldust during the New Generation era was fucking kino. Him pushing the envelope further during the Attitude Era as The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust was even better. There's a reason that part of his gimmick gets overlooked nowadays; it was controversial and uncomfortable for the casual viewer. There are not many gimmicks which genuinely make viewers feel as uneasy as Goldust or TAFKAG.

>>20334539
I started watching a couple years after his debut, and even as a little Jimmy I thought he was a kino bad guy.

>>20334539
>The fans all seem completely stunned
it was dustin rhodes... nobody cared about the natural. thats why vince gave him an actual gimmick. contrary to popular thought wrestling fans watched all the shows back then and even though i was young knew other wrestlers whenever they jumped to the fed and would either change their name of gimmick. nothing shocking about it because by then lots of wrestlers had elaborate outfits. people mostly laughed or made fun of him in real life like my friend and i would do. specifically, how he was trying to revive ahmed johnson by giving him the breath of life

>>20335867
Why was he controversial though? Its not like he was straight up acting home? Just acted strange. He was kind of like that eras Danhausen right?

>>20334539
Me and Barb hadn't seen one of those queer o'sexuals on the television before. Young kids think they can get away with anything.

>>20337744
Goldust struck fear into the cis white male heart

>>20337762
Yeah! Get him!

>>20334539
Wrestling always had homo and gender bending gimmicks. Dustin was just really good at it.

>>20334539
everyone at school liked doing the You will never forget the name Golddust thing that Gold dust would do

>>20335717
We desperately need people like that in crowds again

>>20334539
Even at a young age, I was smart enough to boo gay shit

>>20334539
I was pretty young when and didn't understand anything about sexuality at all at the time. I do however, remember taking more notice of Goldust after his feud with Razor Ramon. My uncle would scream calling him a fucking faggot and would glare at me because I really liked Goldust's theme and thought it sounded cool. I remember my uncle kept asking me if I thought about sucking dicks after that for years and said how disturbing I was as a child for liking Goldust's theme of all things. I guess it had to do with me wearing wigs and doing the pose that he would do. I did that of most wrestlers I watched on TV though. I honestly never had any problems with Goldust. He wasn't my favorite wrestler but I didn't hate him. I also thought when he tagged with Booker T later on that was some interesting segments and times.

I remember thinking Marlena was hot, with that gold dress with her tits pushed up.

>>20334539
I went to a house show in late June/early July 1996. Not sure exactly. Just know it was after King of the Ring because Ahmed Johnson was the IC champion. This was Golddust’s peak. He really leaned into the faggot gimmick. Had white hot heat from the crowd. Never seen or heard anything like on any other show I’ve attended. Loud “faggot” chants. I remember hearing people hurl death threats. Dust leaned into it and got on the mic mid match and threatened to kiss every member of the audience if they didn’t shut up. He got more heat than every heel on the show.

>>20334539
Every dad just said "Look at the fag!".

Nuclear heat at my elementary school. The Rock, Stone Cold, the nWo, etc all had people who liked them heel or not but exactly zero people were fans of him. Never saw a shirt, poster, action figure or anything for sale or in someone else's possession. One kid who picked him a bunch of times in a row playing WWF Attitude at a slumber party got shoot branded a faggot and kicked out because people thought he was going to try to suck their dick when everyone fell asleep.

My dad had seen this kind of gimmick before and wasn't really worked by it. I later learned that they had done almost the exact same deal with Adrian Adonis in the 80s, taking a no nonsense wrestler who is a charisma vacuum and sticking them with a tranny gimmick. But Goldust is the first time people in places that would actually kill you for acting like that saw that kind of gimmick and it was h e a t.

>>20342880
Lmfao your uncle was totally spending his nights getting fucked by guys in public bathrooms

>>20334539
He was genuinely weird when he debuted in 1995. Bear in mind this was still WWF’s live action cartoon era so he really stood out. You saw a lot of proto AE stuff during this time like Sunny really slutting it up.

my childhood corresponded with the attitude era, i was born in 91 so i came of age in the late 90s and early 2000s, i can remember how big wrestling was

as for golddust, i dont remember shit lol, well i do remember getting a boner for terrie runnels, a long fetish for blonde bimbos would ensue.

i do remember when he was tag team with booker t, though it was comedy gold

>>20344826
back then if you had a homo gimmick it would give you nuclear heel heat.

but i imagine you could make a homo baby face in 2026.

mexican wrestling had a whole category of gay wrestlers called exoticos

>>20337744
Bro looked like a transvestite. Danhausen is a vampire dork. Both gimmicks worked well.

>>20337744
Goldust was rubbing guy's faces into his crotch and stuff on house shows. TV execs were starting to be more pro gay and probably wouldn't have allowed that or have allowed another Adrian Adonis, so WWF was more subtle with the character on TV but still seeking the antigay heat. Near the beginning anyway, as Goldust morphed into whatever over time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXlqF7g-tjU&

Rico did the faggot character better there I said it.

>>20344726
When you walked into a room?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0_VcPIevBA

>>20335177
Goldust accepted it and leaned into it because he didn't want to just be "Dustin Rhodes' kid".

Also they had like eight different concepts ready for him with some of them being "Dustin Rhodes' kid".

>>20344839
right...

>>20335197
similar vibes, anon. his vibe at the time was very tonally off from the rest of the happy go lucky new generation. his vignettes intrigued me and scared me a little

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyUl2GB7kAM

his debut against marty jannetty actually scared me. i thought his hair was real and when he revealed it was a wig i thought he was some sick freak. and the being gay was too much. i don't think i'd ever seen a gay man before that. i really didn't like goldust and he provoked such a fearful and disgusted reaction from me. i just wanted him to get killed or lynched. when piper beat him up and stripped him down to his woman's underwear i was happy piper won, but felt sick to see this faggot dressed like that.

in hindsight he was an amazing character for a while, just very creative and different.

>>20334539
I was watching wrestling as a young fan at that time, and I can honestly say I was one of the many people who chanted "faggot" at goldust whenever he appeared. most of those chants didnt make TV but they were deafeningly loud. dont let faggots lie to you and pretend that this gimmick was good, it was disgusting and horrified people to a huge extent. we all knew it was dustin rhodes, he had just been in WCW before that, and nobody liked seeing him disgrace his family like this. this gimmick was one of the reasons that WCW became #1 for a little while. normal people dont want to see this goddamn disgusting faggot trash. not then, not now, not ever.

>>20345133
>Ahh, I hated him so much, what a bad gimmick!

Kek what a worked fag you still are

>>20345138
I love how you fags cant come up with any insult for normal people except to accuse us of being like you lol. also dont sit here and pretend like theres anything rebellious about fucking men in the ass. the establishment loves gay shit, you arent bucking the system by sucking off some AIDS-infested old man behind the gay bar. the original version of the goldust gimmick was dropped pretty quick because it had go-away heat. it was rejected by the fans and pretty much everyone else, and that fact will never change no matter how much you try to retcon it away.

>>20345172
Holy kek look at this worked fag seething

>>20345179
a goldust fan doesnt get to call anyone a fag lol

He has one of the best themes ever in the history of the business. I loved seeing him come out. And just reading through this thread, I’m surprised he got so many little jimmies worked by his character.

>>20345415
This woke right kids spook at the mere sight of a woman

>>20342710
mark

>>20334539
There was an episode of Raw in about the middle of 1998 I wanna say, where Goldust was on the ramp trying to cut a serious sad promo but the crowd was bored as shit and you could clearly hear a fan loudly calling him a faggot

>>20345184
You're a mark, son.

>>20335177
It was a way for Dustin Rhodes to express himself

>>20345172
look at this mark worked into a seething shoot